Seconds after lambasting the “intolerance of the Left” and comparing Barack Obama to a Soviet atheist, presidential hopeful Rick Santorum lionized his supporters at a campaign rally in Texas as the real dissenters of American politics: “[D]issent comes from folks who use reason, common sense and divine revelation,” he told an enthusiastic crowd in February.

Democracy, according to Santorum, is underpinned by faith. And he’s not entirely wrong. Mahatma Gandhi’s noncooperation movement against British imperialism was predicated on the principles of Hindu dharma, and Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. organized against political disenfranchisement through a network of Baptist congregations. But to Santorum and his ilk, the roots of democracy are exclusively Christian. And one religion in particular represents the political antithesis: Islam. “[Equality] does not come from Islam,” Santorum said.

John Feffer’s new book, Crusade 2.0 (City Lights Books, March), tackles the West’s resurgent Islamophobia, critiquing the notion that Islam is innately hostile to democratic principles. From the medieval-era Crusades to the Cold War, Feffer argues, the Western imagination sees Islam through the prism of conflict, synthesizing the characteristics of historical enemies and projecting the result onto modern-day Muslims. Part doomsday religious adversary, part geopolitical menace, Islam satisfies a “cultural anxiety” in America that longs for a galvanizing enemy – the inverse of democratic and moral Christians.

Take the word “Islamofascism,” for example, which conflates contemporary Islamic movements with 20th-century fascism. Feffer, co-director of the Foreign Policy In Focus project at the Institute for Policy Studies, notes that the term – a favorite of the Right (and the late Christopher Hitchens) – is a “fusion of the theological and the geopolitical,” embodying a threat to the political structure that protects America’s Christian heritage.

The fear of political Islam has generated some rather extreme behavior: Four states have passed measures outlawing Sharia law. Oklahoma, which in 2010 passed its law, has a Muslim population of less than 1 percent. In the midst of the Park51 community center controversy, Newt Gingrich compared Islam to Nazi Germany. Europeans haven’t been much calmer: In 2009 Swiss voters approved a ban on the construction of minarets; there are four in the entire country.

What makes right-wing alarmism difficult to grasp is its timing: The recent uptick of Islamophobia coincides with a steady decline in domestic terror plots connected to Muslims. A study by the Triangle Center of Terrorism and Homeland Security found that the number of Muslim Americans involved in terror plots fell for a third year in a row, from 49 in 2009 to 20 in 2011. Of the 14,000 murders that occurred in the United States last year, none were connected to Islamic extremism. In Crusade 2.0, Feffer argues that Islamophobia is “sustained by U.S. government [foreign] policy” as well as the “growing economic, political and global influence of modern Islam.” In other words, having grown accustomed to the Muslim character of America’s global enemies, Islamophobes instinctively view the ascendancy of Muslim nations and the prospect of Islam-inspired democracies with trepidation.

GOP rhetoric offers evidence for this theory: Texas Gov. Rick Perry asserted that Turkey, a NATO member, is “ruled by what many would perceive to be Islamic terrorists.” Michele Bachmann blamed the Arab Spring on Obama administration “weakness.” Gingrich referred to the uprisings as the “Anti-Christian” Spring. Santorum claimed that Obama threw Mubarak “under the bus.” What all of these comments have in common is a distrust of Islam in politics. If you believe that Islam is incompatible with democracy, it makes perfect sense.

While the Obama administration may diverge from the Right’s shrill narrative, it nonetheless stifles democratic expression in the region. The president championed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster only after its inevitability became obvious; his verbal support for democratization contrasts with White House silence after Bahrain’s repressive regime violently attacked pro-democracy demonstrators on February 14. Obama’s circumspect approach may fulfill strategic objectives, but it also reinforces the notion that Muslims are less deserving of the same political treatment that Westerners enjoy.

To defuse the anti-Muslim prejudices still boiling in both the United States and Europe, Crusade 2.0 proposes three solutions: invite Islam into the Judeo-Christian tradition, end the U.S. occupations and admit Turkey into the European Union. Briefly mentioned at the book’s end, Feffer’s suggestions feel perfunctory, naive and somewhat dated. The Iraq occupation, for example, is effectively over, and a troop drawdown has begun in Afghanistan. Withdrawal from both quagmires will mean fewer U.S. troops are fighting Muslims. But the real chance to sap persistent Islamophobia lies in the promise of the Arab Spring – and whether Americans can both understand and respect fledgling Muslim-majority democracies in North Africa and the Middle East.

Patrick Glennon is a writer and musician living in Chicago. He received his B.A. in History from Skidmore College and currently works as Communications Manager for the Michael Forti for Cook County Court campaign and as the web intern at In These Times.

And by the way I should disabuse my tighty-righty brethren from the US about us lefties...just because I think you guys are kooks and often jerked around by your puppeteers, like Koch? who stole all that money from American Indians so he could pay pennies on the dollar in fines and invested the rest in founding the funding the Tea party...and fooling guys like YOU?
Look, I KNOW you hate me. You can't stand it when you find out I did my time in an SF unit, and you didn't. You have had it pretty tough when I out-shot you all those times on the practical range, and the fact that your son needed martial arts training from me bugged you a lot...because I wasn't what that draft dodger Limbaugh told you.
But he gets paid by Koch, who already had you brainwashed twenty years ago.
Don't let the fact that we agree on the Muzzies fool you: you're jerks and pretty dim about the America I love, and the people who work pretty hard in it. Maybe if we met you'd slash my lefty tires or make it clear you didn't appreciate my choice of darker-skinned companions...that's happened.
But you were born here, and I owe you a little slack, hoping you'll wake up, knowing that everytime we talk you just spit the same old talking points with NO basis in fact except Rush told you so and you other retards agree with each other...between you and the muzzies there isn't really very much difference, just different lies.Posted by Leslie Victor Piper on 2012-04-05 02:44:49

I am quite heartened by the comments. I read two books a month on 'Islam' from 9-11 for a couple of years.
Chatted briefly with a beauty from Turkey...yup, Western and CUT,and badly, too.
90% of women living today in Egypt, home of enlightenment and democratic revolution, etc etc...are similarly maimed by their horrible
devilish religion. Look it up...
There are FIVE approved times that a Muslim can LIE to YOU, my so-called Christian friend, and being Christian qualifies you for such treatment.
Wonder just how many of DC's smartest bear that in mind when they are off to get 'agreements' from Muslims?
I was MUCH more open-minded about the noble Pathans and the holy warriors before I knew something and talked with some life-time Muslims...they won't cause MUCH trouble here, just like in Europe, until they get up to about 7, 8% of the population.
Then it's time for YOU to obey. You know, submit to the Will of Allah, as the local dingbat imam interprets it?
Seriously: I'm angry about this, but they are humans who want to live under mental slavery and permanently maim their daughters. Fortunately I can only act for myself, but with great power I would be very hard on the decision-makers among all sects of Islam.
From personal experience I'd have to say Muslims are more obsequious than Republicans. It's probably cultural and part of living in a feudal, tightly-ranked society. Not at all democratic.Posted by Leslie Victor Piper on 2012-04-05 02:25:52

A phobia is an UNNATURAL fear. Is it unnatural to fear a worldwide religion that has in their holy book, an obligation to fight non-believers until the entire world is dominated by Islam? (Koran 9:29). Is it unnatural to fear a group whos leaders call for the destruction of Israel and the United States? A group that professes to love death more than life? A group that teaches its children that Jews are decendants of apes and swine? A group that considers its founder to be the perfect example of conduct; while said founder ordered the murders of those who criticized him, and beheaded hundreds of captives and took their women as sex slaves. A founder who promoted wive beating, sex with a 9 year old bride, theft (caravan raids), deception, and promoted spreading Islam, not by evangelizing, but by the sword?
Those who downplay this global Jihad are either ignorant of the Islamic literature and teachings, or dishonest.Posted by Geoff King on 2012-03-31 16:41:34

I read in your bio that you are a web intern. This is great, because it will allow you to perform an experiment that will prove to doubters (some of whom have commented on your article) that Islam is a religion of peace and that Islamists respect democracy.
Create a web site called, "The Mohammed Cartoon Network" (All Mohammed, all the time!) Be sure to display your name and home address on the site. Invite people to submit funny cartoons about the Prophet Mohammed. Post these cartoons so that everyone can enjoy them. Then, after a year or two with no problems, people like me will have to admit that you were right about Islam all along.
If you'll let me hold the stakes, I'll bet you $1000 you end up dead like Theo van Gogh. The rest of us can consider it a form of natural selection for someone dumb enough to believe what you seem to believe.
Posted by Louis Woodhill on 2012-03-31 14:42:47

This article is based on a false premise-- that "fledgling Muslim-majority democracies in North Africa and the Middle East" are comparable to Western democracies.
Where do we find bedrock democratic principles anywhere in the "fledgling Muslim-majority democracies" such as freedom of religion, freedom of speech, due process of law, equality of women and minorities all being upheld by independent judiciary under the rule of law.
Without these there is no democracy worthy of understanding and respect--there is only mob rule.
Posted by Jeff C on 2012-03-31 13:05:43

I am heartened by the comments from the posters above. The article by Mr. Glennon is breathtakingly ignorant about Islam's history, its tenets, its goals. Or perhaps it is willful blindness. In any case, I am proud to be an "Islamophobe" because it means I have no tolerance for the intolerance, bigotry, misogyny, homophobia, draconian punishments, etc. that are part and parcel of majority Islamic societies the world over. I have no tolerance for the 18,000 plus deadly terror attacks committed in the name of Islam since 9/11. This is a vile, totalitarian fascistic ideology which fortunately is not adhered to by most Muslims. But the "tiny minority of extremists" is enough to make the enlightened person who cares about freedom of conscience, freedom of thought and religion, equality and liberty, plenty afraid.Posted by xenawp on 2012-03-31 06:05:52

Thank you, Veet. You do what you can. No hope for the majority of the atrophied Left but perhaps here and there you reach the spark in one or t'other, Keep pressing. Plenty of converts to Common Sense out here.
"Simpleton" Hear hear, Jake. Such easy-thinkers, what thoughts they have take the path of least resistance. That may be the definition of Liberal, after all. And of all the various and sundry things about which they self-delude, that they are the smart and tolerant ones is likely the biggest area where they fool themselves.
Correction: Flight 93 went down in Shanksville,PA. Glad I got there when it was just a Park Service shack, a wall and a field, before the Feds dork it up and make it a monument to the enemy. Tower of Voices? Hm. Now where else would you come across one of those? Posted by curved space on 2012-03-30 19:23:04

This article is so laughably... laughable.
"From the medieval-era Crusades to the Cold War, Feffer argues, the Western imagination sees Islam through the prism of conflict, synthesizing the characteristics of historical enemies and projecting the result onto modern-day Muslims. "
This is really bizarre. The United States and the vast majority of Americans have no historical connection nor cultural memory of the Crusades. Until 9/11, the word "crusade" meant raising money to fight cancer or something in that vein.
I would wager that most Americans didn't think much about Islam at all as a political enemy at all until 9/11. Many of the Middle Eastern terrorists prior to then were secularists.
As for the "Western imagination" outside the US seeing Islam as an historical enemy... were they not? Still, I don't know of any Europeans who talk about the Crusades wistfully. Nor do I know of any who talk about taking vengeance on the Muslims. Weirdly, it's the Muslim world that still brings up the Crusades as a historical grudge (never mind that the Crusades were just blowback to an aggressive and expansionist Islam).
Finally, what kind of simpleton starts off the article by asking "No Americans were killed on U.S. soil by Islamic extremists in 2011. Why does Islamophobia persist?" Seriously? That's your question?
Oh, wait, I just read your "About this Author." Never mind.Posted by Jake Long on 2012-03-30 18:28:12

curved space,
Thank you for most thoughtful reply.
I wish I could stay as cool as you.
It is hard for me, because I don't perceive this article as an intellectual position, rather I see the author, PATRICK GLENNON, as a exemplar of a certain psychological illness that involves compulsive lying, hatred and hatred of ones own country and civilization. And above all pathological dishonesty, a position that any lie and manipulation is "good" as long as it serves the "great goal". The great goal itself is an illusion. Therefore the psychopath has to imagine "Arab Spring" and "democracy", when reality is pure barbarity and sliding back to the Islamic Dark Ages.
Marxism and post-Marxism has the unique ability to attract the sickest individuals in the society.
I have very little tolerance for psychopathology, be it pedophilia, or Marxists.
I will to pay Patrick Glennon for a one way ticket to Egypt where he can enjoy's the "Spring", if he will stay there for at least 10 years. Posted by veet vivarto on 2012-03-30 16:33:25

"Why does Islamophobia persist?"
Is that a trick question?
Briefly, the framing of the issue is objectionable. This use of "phobia" to trivialize and slur anyone with another viewpoint has become widely acceptable in many spheres, but it is nonetheless childish shorthand. A phobia is an irrational fear. Wariness of a group of people whose avowed goal is to kill you is not a phobia. It's natural. Doesn't matter if that group is just a subset of a larger ostensibly more "peaceful" group of not.
What's the statute of limitations on 9/11? (Just for instance.) Apparently here it's ten years if the tenth has no nearby incident. Sorry. For many of us the atrocity is still immediate. I saw a movie the other night made in 1983. Set in New York. There were the Towers. And the wound reopened.
US soil? Suddenly now we care about US soil? How provincial? How parochial. Jewish children murdered in Toulouse? No biggee. A little Jewish girl chased down the street, grabbed by the hair and shot in the head? Not on US soil. Nothing to see here. Move along. .
As a student of history, my own timescale for the origin of this "Islamophobia" thing usually takes me back to the Fall of Constantinople, 1453, more than 500 years before I was born. I'd say "But that's just me" except ask your average history-aware Greek about it. Some of them still know the location of family property in Istanbul. Who ever protests for their right of return?
If you could go back in time go ask the people of 1683 Vienna -- besieged by Islamic Ottomans -- why their Islamophobia persisted. Heck it had been 150 or so years since the previous Ottoman siege of Vienna. What's the big deal?
Or pop out to Frackville PA sometime. There's a spot there where Flight 93 flew barely 50 feet overhead, upside down, just before slamming into the ground. Read the transcripts of the cockpit recorder. Read the words of the hijackers clearly and repeatedly invoking the name of their motivating personage. I can tell ya it ain't Jesus, Buddha or Vishnu they're akbarrin'.
So, the people on that flight had every right to rationally fear Islam, No? They were suffering from no phobia. A team of Islamists were about to incinerate and pulverize them in a Pennsylvania field.
Facile and detached little unserious questions like this I tend to associate philosophically with that Florida Agriculture Dept official who had Mohamed Atta in her office to tell him his $600,000 grant to do crop dusting had been denied. He threatened to cut her throat. She attributed that to a "vibrant and lively culture". That government official missed a clue or two. I'd say, as does anyone who doesn't take the 1,400-year-long campaign of Islam seriously.
So no, the trick question illuminates nothing other than the shallowness, unworldliness and historical ignorance of the its author. Most people with common sense know enough to just roll their eyes and ignore this kind of thing. Every once in a while I can't.Posted by curved space on 2012-03-30 15:54:38

Only a LEFTARD (Retarded Leftist)
Could have written the following sentence:
"But the real chance to sap persistent Islamophobia lies in the promise of the Arab Spring – and whether Americans can both understand and respect fledgling Muslim-majority democracies in North Africa and the Middle East."
The "Arab Spring" has brought about Islamofascist regimes in Egypt and Tunisia.
Over 200,000 Copts had to escape from Egypt because of that "spring". Now Egypt is ruled by the Muslim Brothers and even more extreme sect of Salafists.
The leftards such as PATRICK GLENNON cry when a rioting musloid Pal-Arabs is shot with a robber bulled it Israel, but is completely OK with hundreds of Copts murdered, and their churches burned, in Egypt.
In the "fledgling democracy" in Tunisia, Jews are openly persecuted, historical synagogue burned.
I don't think PATRICK GLENNON can be cured.Posted by veet vivarto on 2012-03-30 14:17:39

Newtt's comparison is accurate. Islam indeed is every bit as bad as Nazism. Perhaps even worse. Both tried to dominate the whole world. Both were antisemitic genocidal towards Jews. Both are against basic civil liberties, both are totalitarian, but at least Nazism was not against women.
As for the terror and other crimes committed by the musloids?
Just a few days ago an Allah-ho-Akhbar warshiper killed a bunch of Jewish kids in France for the crime of being Jewish. He video-recorded himself shooting children to inspire other musloids to kill more Jews.
I wonder if the moron who wrote this article would even wake up when his wife is being raped by a musloid shouting Allah-ho-Akhbar.
No, I am not exaggerating, the mosloids are disproportionally rapists. In Oslo, Norway, in 2010 ALL ASSAULT RAPES were committed by the musloid. YES!!! ALL!!! OF THEM!!!
But the leftards such as the author, would of course say, "oh, it is no their fault, they are just so traumatized by all that Islamophobia." Posted by veet vivarto on 2012-03-30 14:08:22

Under the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, now that Mubarak is gone, thousands of Christians have been forced to flee persecution. In Nigeria, 95% of the nations christians have been forced out of the county because Islamic groups have been killing them.
Earlier this month, Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia Sheik Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah said it was “necessary to destroy all the churches of the region.” And this is one of the region's, and Islam's, leading figures!
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/03/23/time_to_air_muslim_violence_against_christians_113595.html
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/16/destroy-all-churches/
This doesn't even take into consideration the violence perpetrated against other Muslims, primarily women and children.Posted by Eric Skogerboe on 2012-03-30 13:17:17

Just this month an Islamic Fanatic murdered a 30 year ol teacher, his three and six year old sons, and another eight year old girl? Why kill children? Because they were Jewish, and since he was in France there likely weren't any American children readily available. Then of course there is Iran where a Christian pastor faces execution because he converted from Islam to Christianity. We can go to Saudi Arabia where woman aren't allowed to leave the house without being in the company of a male relative, nor are they permited to drive. There is also Afghanistan where the Taliban, If Obama succeeds, will soon be back in control. They see no reason for female children to go to school because cows have more value. And almost anywhere in the Middle East a woman faces death or imprisonment if she's raped. In Canada in January a Moslem Man, his son, and wife, were finally convicted of murdering the man's 3 daughters and his former spouse in honor killings because the teenage girls were dressing, dating, playing on the internet. In short acting like normal teenage girls, and of course honor killings are accepted and go on throughout the Islamic world. The list of horrors in the Islamic world, and it the west perpetrated by followers of Islam goes on and on and on! Is the religion to blame? You don't see Islamic Religious or Political Leaders coming out and stopping or even denouncing most of the horrors, and almost all of them promote the horror of Sharia Law. And no murders by Islamic terrorists on U.S. soil in 2011? Yet we all line up at airports like cattle to be scanned and prodded, in my case more than willingly, because we know that only one slip and thousands or tens of thousands of Americans including children and babies would be murdered by Islamic fanatics. The question isn't why Islamphobia exists, the question is, given the real horrors followers of Islam are perpetrating perpetrating on hundreds of millions of people and the general total intolerance of Islam, why it isn't rampaging unchecked. An Islamic woman covered head to toe can take her children to any mall in America and go about her shopping safe and secure. That is a credit to this nation and shows an amazing level of tolerance and acceptance in a nation founded on the Judeo/Christian tradition! Posted by valwayne on 2012-03-30 12:27:06

Uh, two phrases will summarize all you need to know about the history between Islam and the West.
"Battle of Tours", Charles Martel
AND
"Siege of Vienna" Jan Sobiesky
Look 'em up on Wiki.
But for those two victories, we would all be bowing to Mecca five times a day now. The NFL would not exist, nor would rock 'n roll, nor Victoria's Secret. Nor barbeque, nor Coors beer. Nor would democracy have risen, nor science, nor modern economics or modern farming or the industrial revolution.
If you want to see a society run on Islamic principles, find one anywhere in the world where you would consider moving to. Then come back to tell us why we should not oppose this "religion" "of peace".Posted by Ron Berti on 2012-03-30 12:07:17

Ah, Christianophobes discoursing about the evils of Islamaophobia! This must be LeftyWorld™!Posted by Harry Tuttle on 2012-03-30 11:26:30

Despite your condescending use of the question-begging smear "Islamophobia", opposition to Islam need not be based on religion (I am an atheist) or unreasoning fear. Islam boldly announces itself as a criminal conspiracy to establish religious dictatorship by force. Forgive me if I see that project as somehow antithetical to the Constitution and the American way. As for blaming Christianity for hostility to Islam, it is Islam and not the West which invented the terms jihad, dhimmi, taqiyya, jizra, dar al harb, and so on. Odd you use the word crusade but none of these terms in your assertions.Posted by Jan Vones on 2012-03-30 10:29:45

Anyone who could ask that question doesn't know what the word Dhimmi means. But he will be happy to call those who know more than he ignorant.
For his fellow ignoramuses, Islam is comparable to Nazism and Communism in its goal of world domination and subjugation of those who will not accept it. We do not fear it we oppose it. What you see as “Islamophobia” is actually love of freedom and resistance to tyranny. There are three types of people in the world according to the “religion of peace”, Those who submit to Allah and are called Muslims, those who do not submit but accept Islam’s superiority and are called Dhimmi, and those who refuse either. I am proud to count myself the latter.
Now explain to me why I should be accepting of someone who thinks that I should pay a special tax called the Jizya which means “Penalty” for not adhering to their faith. Why should I accept anybody who subscribes to a belief system that says my word should not count equally to their in court? Or why I should have respect for anyone too ignorant to know this is what they are advocating for me?
Posted by James Johnson on 2012-03-30 09:22:29

No Americans were killed on U.S. soil by Islamic extremists in 2011. Why does Islamophobia persist?
Because their so called religion calls for the Infidels and non believers destruction. Is this something you can't understand? I suppose I should not be fearful of walking in a black gang infested part of Detroit being white either right? Tell you what author if you think the Muslims are so peaceful how about putting on an American flag suit drop yourself in Iran and hike the back country. I am sure the peaceful Muslims will just shake your hand and say hello. Dhimmi is the word for you.Posted by Jeff Betts on 2012-03-30 08:33:30